'I took action': High school football player kills student over her pregnancy, court documents say

Aaron R. Trejo, 16, of Mishawaka, Indiana, was charged with murder and feticide Dec. 10, 2018, in connection with the death of Breana Rouhselang, 17, who was six months pregnant.(Photo: St. Joseph County (Ind.) Police Department)

MISHAWAKA, Ind. – A high school football player has confessed to killing a student manager of the team because she was pregnant with their child, according to court documents released Monday.

Aaron Trejo, 16, of Mishawaka about 150 miles north of Indianapolis, told police that he knew Breana Rouhselang, 17, was pregnant and he was "supposed to be the father of the baby," but neither he nor Rouhselang wanted to be parents, a probable cause affidavit said.

"I took action. ... I took her life," Trejo reportedly told police, according to court documents.

On Monday, Trejo was charged in St. Joseph County Superior Court with murder and feticide after Rouhselang's body was found Sunday morning in a trash container behind a Mishawaka restaurant. Prosecutors are trying him as an adult, and he is being publicly identified because of that action.

Breana Rouhselang had been one of the managers for the football team, a spokeswoman for Mishawaka Schools said.

The discovery of Rouhselang's body came after her mother reported her missing early Sunday, Detective Gery Mullins of St. Joseph County Metro Police wrote in the affidavit. The girl's mother told police that her daughter, who was six months pregnant, had gone to talk to the father of her unborn child, Trejo, around 11 p.m. EST Saturday.

When Rouhselang didn't return after several hours, her mother became concerned. She went to Trejo's home at around 1 a.m. and asked about Rouhselang.

Trejo told her that he went to the alley behind the girl's home to talk to her, but she never showed up, according to court documents.

Officers went to the alley and found glasses and a stocking cap, two items that Rouhselang's mother described as her daughter's. The stocking cap appeared to have blood on it.

They soon found Rouhselang's body in a dumpster. A black plastic garbage bag had been placed over her head and torso, according to the affidavit.

When detectives questioned Trejo at the police station, he maintained that he was supposed to meet up with Rouhselang but she never showed up, Mullins wrote in the affidavit.

But when Mullins asked about the pregnancy, Trejo acknowledged that they fought over it, the detective said in court documents. Trejo told him that Rouhselang waited too long to tell him about the pregnancy to get an abortion, the affidavit stated.

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Using a knife he brought from home, Trejo stabbed Rouhselang in the heart, the affidavit said. He then put a black plastic bag that he also brought from home over Rouhselang's body, Mullins wrote.

Trejo then put Rouhselang in the restaurant's trash container and walked to the river to throw her phone and his knife into the water, according to court documents.

“I took action. ... I took her life.”

Aaron Trejo, Mishawaka, Indiana, in an affidavit

An autopsy found that Rouhselang died from multiple stab wounds, and that a scarf she had been wearing at the time was tied so tightly that she was being strangled before she died, the affidavit said.

In a press release, the St. Joseph County prosecutor's office said Trejo had been ordered held without bond at St. Joseph County Jail. He is due in court on Tuesday.

Court records don't list a lawyer for Trejo.

School officials learned of Rouhselang's death as they were setting up for the school's football banquet Sunday, according to a statement from Meg Sauer, chief communications officer for the school district.

"Families came to what was supposed to be a celebration and instead (we) learned of this tragic event," Superintendent A. Dean Speicher said.

Police investigate after the body of a pregnant teenager was found Dec. 9, 2018, in a dumpster behind a Mishawaka, Ind., restaurant. The next day, authorities charged a 16-year-old football player, supposedly the father of the unborn child, with murder and feticide.(Photo: Joseph Dits, South Bend (Ind.) Tribune via AP)